Snow Fog

Day after Christmas.
December meltdown.
Warm air strokes cold earth.

Snow fog

escapes from the woods,
floats over the fields,
dances with the wind.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Grattan Township - Kent County, Michigan

promise

To my Creator:

I promise to open my eyes
every day of my life
with hopeful expectation,
with gratitude for the gifts
I have been given,
and for all the days
I have been blessed
to be alive in this world.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Home Woods

2. Bear Creek - Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan 

Daylight Moon

I like to be surprised 
by  the daylight moon,

so that when I discover it,
like a circular cloud
hidden in a vast blue sky,

I'll know 
it's been 
waiting 
for me 
to 
SEE.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Home - Cannonsburg, Michigan

Cheers!

The Cardinal may be common,
but he announces dawn,
 declares dusk for us,
and remains loyal
and present
through the seasons;

raising a brood,
finding food;
even in winter,
he appears,
and reappears, calling:
"what cheer, cheer, cheer,"
or, "pretty, pretty, pretty."

while wearing
that bold red uniform
proper and suitable
for his cardinal duties.

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Location: Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

Play the Cardinal call  from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Thoreau

Live in each season as it passes, ...
And resign yourself to the influences of each.
Be blown on by all the winds." 

~ Henry  David  Thoreau 

Journal - August 23, 1853

Journal Entries II

December 5, 1976                    High  30°          Low  18°      Snow =  5"

© 2012 Richard Havenga

December 5, 2012            High  26°        Low  20°     Snow =  2"

© 2012 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy Journal Entries - November 27, 2012

Photo Locations: Home Woods, Home Fields

Accumulation

As the winter wind
practices on your face,
can you feel
the rush of years
recording your days,
piling into
deep drifts
of accumulated
time?

© 2016 Richard Havenga

Photo Locations:

1. Townsend Park - Kent County, Michigan

2. Kent County, Michigan

Given

What has been given
to me,
I want to give
to you:

The magnificent melody
of the Wood Thrush
singing its praise song
on a fresh morning in May. 

The purple clusters
of Lupine
thriving in the
cool Colorado rain.

The flutter of golden
aspen leaves
trembling on their twigs
in the September mountains.

The patter of raindrops
falling a second time;
from the bare twigs
to the forest floor.

Mountain rivers
swirling past Ponderosas
and rushing
between boulders.

What God has given
to me,
I now give
to you. 

© 2016 Richard Havenga

You may also enjoy: "Finding Gifts" - December, 2014

Photo Locations:

1. & 4, Home Woods  (Call of the Wood Thrush )

2. South Fork, Colorado 

3. Ouray, Colorado 

5. Arkansas River - Buena Vista, Colorado